A new feature briefly appeared for the YouTube premium users that will allow users to download the videos on multiple devices for offline playback.
One of the most important features that YouTube premium users have is the ability to download any video for offline playback. And via this new feature, YouTube may want to expand this functionality.
This YouTube cross-device functionality will be helpful in many ways. Users can make use of this to sync downloads across multiple devices like a smartphone or tablet.
The only thing you need is to make sure to login with the same account across devices. Notably, the feature went live for both stable and beta versions of the YouTube Android app,
As spotted by Android Police, the new menu “cross-device offline settings” appears in the Background & downloads settings for some YouTube Premium subscribers.
Once you tap on this option, a new pop-up showed up asking you which device should be synced. This pop-up appeared along with a toggle that reads, “Allow downloading to this device.”
However, while testing this feature between two phones, this feature did not work and didn’t sync downloads between two Android phones. So, it seems like the testing was live for a short period of time.
This feature was spotted in a tear-down of the YouTube app back in 2018
Apparently, this is not the first time that this feature has been spotted. Basically, back in 2018, in an APK teardown of the YouTube app, a code referring to this feature popped up.
Moreover, even after two years, if this code is still lingering around and now went under testing, all hints that we may soon see this feature on the YouTube app.
But at the moment, it is unclear when this feature would see the light of the day. It will be quite useful for YouTube premium users to sync their downloads across devices for offline usage.
Meaning that you can download all of your favorite songs on your phone, and later, still have access to all your songs either on your smart TV or tablet, if you are not near your smartphone.
That said, the UI showcasing cross-device functionality quietly disappeared from the app. Although we are not sure, the feature may still be available to some users if it is a broader server-side test.
In case you wish to check if you can also get your hands on this new feature, you need to make sure that you have the latest version of the YouTube app from the Play Store.
